Just back from the US Conference of Mayors Workforce Development meeting in Washington, DC. The presentations were outstanding from best practices in summer jobs to the new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) or as we are going to call it the Opportunity Act. Discussion by the Mayors centered on "Cities 3.0" and the re-invention of what it means to be a city of opportunity and prosperity.

We had a presentation of "CODE Oregon", and "CODE Louisville" where treehouse LLC (www.teamtreehouse.org) where tech job training happens with badges awarded along the way for successful completion of certain technical skills. This model is proving successful with students in high school and college as a way to get the needed certifications in Java, Ruby, and many other tutorials. We will be looking at this cutting edge offering in the near future.

Meanwhile, there was discussion with Ron Painter (National Association of Workforce Boards) and his team on the re-visioning of the Career Center system that is expected under the new law. No business as usual. The new measures being discussed in Washington include how quickly we fill open job postings in our region with qualified job seekers, how many postings are we getting from business, how many businesses use our system to post (free) their job opportunities, and other metrics.

We listened to presentations by Boston under the new Mayor's leadership on creating a partnership across union, developers, and hospitality owner to professionalize the staff at hotels, credential them, and have the average wage reach $19 plus per hour with benefits. Change is happening everywhere.

I was pleased that our new Mayor and the former Mayor of Tallahassee were present and able to hear some great ideas to bring back to Tallahassee, FL.

All in all it was a productive session and will spur ideas in the CareerSource Capital Region.